DeMarcus Cousins does not like Chris Paul. We realized that earlier this year when Cousins refused to let teammate Isaiah Thomas shake Paul’s hand after the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Sacramento Kings. What we don’t really understand is why Cousins holds so much animosity toward CP3.

In a recent feature written by Grantland’s Jonathan Abrams, Cousins explained himself — sort of.

“It’s just, some players I don’t respect,” Cousins said when asked about Paul. “Just their playing style of basketball. I don’t respect it. I feel like it’s basically cheating and I don’t respect a cheater. If that’s your tactic to winning, I don’t respect you.”

While Cousins (or Abrams) did not go into specifics, he may have been referring to Paul’s tendency to flop for calls. CP3 brought us one of the most pathetic flop attempts of the season last year, and he was trying to draw a foul on Cousins when he did it.

Thomas also gave his account of the incident that took place earlier this season.

“It was [him being competitive],” Thomas said. “At the same time, I told him, ‘Everyone looks at everything that you do. So they may take it a different way than what you were trying to do. You’re mad we lost. You don’t want to shake hands with them, but you didn’t have to pull me away to make it something that it wasn’t.’”

Cousins was obviously mad about more than just losing the game, especially if he feels that Paul is a “cheater.” That said, he also snubbed JJ Redick when Redick tried to shake his hand in another game. Incidents like that explain why people never give the former Kentucky standout the benefit of the doubt.

Chest bump to SLAM Online